Tag Archives: Heavy Metal

Mega Colossus – Razor City

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Happy Friday! Enjoy some bigass metal from Mega Colossus, this time it’s Razor City. These guys are from Raleigh, NC, and have been shredding faces since 2005. Although for 2005-2016 they were just Colossus. I guess in 2016 they upgraded. And whatever upgrade they did it is well worth it! These guys bring the metal that should be blasting out of every skate shop or dingy dive bar covered in stickers. They also have an album called “… and the Rift of the Pan-Dimensional Undergods” which is pretty spot on for a metal band.

The song kicks off with some staccato drums before a big metal scream. Also they’re slicing their way through the madness. I really dig the vocalist yelling RAZOR CITAAAAAAYYYYY before the first of many finger tappy solos. The vocals are not exactly what I’d expect on top of this kind of metal, but then he yells RAZOR CITAAAYYYY and I understand completely. The drums drive their way through the song, and into your heart. This is one of those “if I’m on a bike ride I’m putting up some PRs” type of songs. I feel like these guys had a checklist of awesome metal tropes to include in the song and took care of them with aplomb. Chock full of solos, chugga riffs, harmonizing, and more, this song rips so hard.

If Beavis & Butthead still covered music videos, this would’ve been in rotation. It cuts between the band playing in a club and clips from Skateboard Samurai 2. He starts off fighting a dude who looks kinda like him, and then he moves on to the Skooter Boys! There’s also a witch lady with a scrying orb and a little demon guy who looks like a Portuguese Gremlin. Oh dang guitar posing during the breakdown! And then a great twist at the end. I want to see more of Skateboard Samurai. He looks tough and awesome.

Friday Morning Metal – Templar – Treacherous Beast

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Straight out of Stockholm this week is Templar, proprietors of throwback metal! These guys started in 2022, but maybe they frozen in ice in 1978 and thawed out in 2022.

The song is a solid throwback metal song, feels a lot more like 1979-1982 era stuff. Like they could open for Riot. Not Quiet Riot, but Riot. It starts with some live footage before kicking into the dueling guitar intro. They do the cool thing where each guitar is in its own channel, so you can hear difference. Unless you’re missing a speaker or are deaf in one ear, then you only hear 75% of the band. They’ve got a great chugga sound, and the vocals harken back to the bygone era of feathered hair and songs about traveling the wilderness to fight the beast. There’s a great echo effect during the solo, it makes it sound extra layered and stuff. The song’s also just short of three and a half minutes; doesn’t feel like they left any meat on the bone for this one! Just a solid throwback shred fest.

The video bounces between live footage and what appears to be a band photo shoot. They seem a little nervous playing with the bigass sword and the torch, but otherwise they seem to be having a good time. I hope they used the group photo for a Christmas card. The live footage doesn’t always synch with the audio, which is a little off-putting, but otherwise it’s solid.

Friday Morning Metal – Texas Hippie Coalition – Bones Jones

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Did you know there’s a Texas Hippie Coalition? I just learned today and now you get to, as well! They’ve been around since 2004, playing big heavy groove metal that is pretty reminiscent of Pantera or other late 90’s acts. True to form, they’ve had 7 different drummers. I hope none of them choked on vomit, that would be dreadful.

The song kicks into chuggy gear pretty quick. Like I mentioned earlier, it’s a pretty beefy groove metal sound, with a solid beat that’d be great for like boxing or working out. Solid cadence & whatnot. The vocals are deep and beefy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they say “Southern Styllllllle” in another song. Apparently Bones Jones is a tweaker and a soul seeker. He also air guitars the solo which is very noodly and very 1995. All in all, it’s a great throwback to an era that wasn’t 1985, and it’s fun. So if you have a shirt with the sleeves ripped off and the urge to backyard wrestle, you should give these guys a shot.

The video is a wacky races meets Rat Fink cartoon, with the band and Mr. Bones Jones racing to a haunted castle after introducing our racers. And some other bits about what kind of guy Bones Jones is. Bones Jones is a pretty great name, it’s too bad I don’t know any Joneseses, because they’d get nicknamed pretty quickly. Oh and Bones Jones bites some boobs, so if you’re at work, make sure you’re not sharing this screen on your Zoom.

Friday Morning Metal – Ovary Axe – Rise up to Fall

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Ovary Axe, now that’s a metal band name! This is a project fronted by Canadian singer Emm Gryner, who calls herself the Gryndmother for Rise up to Fall. According to a music life magazine article that felt like half AI and half press release, she was a pop singer for a while and released some work and then decided to be metal. And that’s pretty cool, metal is a vital nutrient in one’s musical upbringing. Also Ovary Axe, that’s just brütal.

Starting a song with a metal scream is a great way to let people know you mean business. It’s a pretty standard chuggy hard rock/metal melody, and the vocals are layered pretty well over it. The guitar solo is pretty solid, fitting in with the general melody while adding some noodlin. It transitions to a good breakdown that I could see getting a crowd shouting RISE UP TO FALL and whatnot. And at just under 3 minutes, it’s a good proof of concept of a solid metal band getting going.

The video itself pops between her singing in front of a projector of the lyrics and then some studio work. They added some glitchy stuff to the projector plus some aging to the video to give it a rough edgy look. All in all I’m digging on the song and look forward to more OVARY AXE.

Friday Morning Metal – Skräcken – House of Greed

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Oooh Swedish metal! Skräcken got their start in 2022, pumping out big riffs with occult flair. Gotta include the umlaut in the name, as the umlaut is one of the most metal accents, up there with that o with the line through it. This guy: ø. According to the metal encyclopedia, their themes include occult, witches, and dark spirits. I assume they mean ghosts and not like… rum.

The song is pretty straightforward, with some solid riffs driving drums. The vocalist is solid, apparently she was in Night Viper previously, so that explains the great chops. Everything meshes well, giving a good throwback vibe while maintaining spookiness. At 3 minutes and change, the song doesn’t dawdle too much. There’s a cool breakdown toward the end, when the spooky lady in the video starts walking backward. All in all it’s pretty great and I’m looking forward to listening to more of their stuff.

The video is primarily a spooky lady wandering around a farm or something, plus old spooky photos. It’s quite spooky. I don’t think I’d want to live at that farm, it looks like it needs a lot of work. And probably some ghost bustin. Though that does make me feel good. It’s wild how black & white filming and adding scuffs to the video can make something spookier. But it helps set the tone of the song definitely.

Friday Morning Metal – Helms Deep – Flight of the Harpy

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Ooooh a metal band named after a Tolkien thing, now we’re talking. Helms Deep is based out of Florida, and I don’t think they have songs about swamps, gators, or Bortles, but they do have a big metal sound, and a new album, Chasing the Dragon, featuring Flight of the Harpy. According to the Metal Encylopedia they don’t have themes. But right now I’m getting a lot of harpy. Oh and now I know why they seemed familiar, there’s a Helm’s Deep from Seattle and I’m pretty sure I saw them play with Red Fang at the Shakedown. They were pretty good times.

Like a good throwbacky metal song, we kick off with some chuggy guitars and a kickass falsetto scream. I enjoy that the vocals bounce between growls and falsetto, feels nice and raw-ish or something. The escalating dueling guitar melodies before dropping into the solo is a fun amp up. And some plinky plunky xylophoniness for a breakdown! It’s a pretty bombastic breakdown, gives off Phantom of the Opera vibes, before cutting back to the main riff coupled with some good falsetto. It’s also great to hear the bass up in the mix, really technical stuff toward the end too,

Unfortunately I couldn’t find music videos for them, hopefully they can crank one out because the lyrics have enough going on you could make a video about a harpy flying around at night, eating like… I donno… evil children or goats or something. Maybe some dude tries to fight the harpy but he can’t fight the flight of the harpy, due to her razor claws, so he loses, only for the harpy to keep eating stuff.

And I’d be remiss if I talked about harpies so much without referencing the Queen of the Harpies.

Friday Morning Metal – Venator – Steal the Night

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Oooh throwback metal from Austria. Venator’s Steal the Night sounds straight out of NWoBHM. Or I guess classic heavy metal at this point. These guys have been around since 2016 and have a good sound. Also apparently their themes are Fighting, Rebellion, and Horror. Encyclopedia Metallum has a lot of detail about bands. Including themes.

The song is off their album Psychodrome, which I think is the drome that Krang’s cousin used in Ninja Turtles. They didn’t show it in the cartoon because it was way more psychotic than the Technodrome. The song itself is pretty down the fairway chugga guitars and driving drums. The vocals have a bit of edge but fit in well, gives the song a lot of its classic feel. There’s a kickass not too wild solo 3/4 of the way through the song, definitely had the same feel as something you’d hear in 1983.

There’s a live version of the song so you can see just how well these guys time traveled from the 80s. Leather pants, high tops, they’ve got it all! But also they look like they’d be fun to see live so maybe they’ll come to the US at some point! So dust off your battle jacket, put one your fingerless gloves, and hop into your camaro! It’s time to rock.

And if you want to hear the album version, they got that too. Drums sound a lot better than the live one.

Friday Morning Metal – Battlesnake – I am the Vomit

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Happy Friday! This week is some fuzzy metal with a very public access-caliber video from Battlesnake. This band is from Sydney, Australia, and they seem okay throwing up to create some sort of Gollum-feratu monster.

I’m not sure what kind of metal they are. Encyclopaedia Metallum pegs them as Heavy Metal, which is kind of broad. I know it’s not necessarily fuzz metal, but it is plenty fuzzy. Sounds almost like Red Fang and Big Dumb Face smooshed together. Donno why I picked those two specifically, but here we are. For the most part it’s a solid chuggy song, singing about maggots and venom and yeast and stuff. The dueling guitarmony into the shreddy solo is totally great. There’s some good noodling and scale work before closing out the song. Ending a song with a solo is rad. More bands should do it.

The video is pretty grody, but has a great metal vibe. Apparently the Knights Templar, if they throw up into a coffin, can make a pale monster that might be The Vomit? Regardless, that dude is not keen on the knights and rips them all up. One of them is made of sausage links; I did not realize that Knights Templar have different internal organs than regular humans, that’s good to know. It’s also shot on what appears to be high-8 video? That kind of look that would fit in at 2am on public access.

Friday Morning Metal – Sanhedrin – Blind Wolf

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Oooh New York heavy metal! Sanhedrin is here this week with the video for their song Blind Wolf. This is another band with a cool bassist lady singing, which is pretty rad.

The video is a mix of studio shots and them looking for something out the woods. Maybe it’s the blind wolf. I bet they’re easy to sneak up on. Or the comet blinded the wolf. Poor wolf. In the band’s extensive YouTube description, it’s a symbol of losing your inner wolf because you follow someone else. I always thought there were two wolves inside you, one chocolate, and one peanut butter. But maybe there’s only one. Putting all the aging on the video and hard cuts helps make it feel occult & whatnot, props to the videographer for that.

The song kicks off with a pretty solid guitar lead in, kinda like something you’d hear at the start of an early 80’s thrash song, though it doesn’t kick full into high gear. The vocalist has a good set of pipes, fits in really well with the song, and also kinda reminds me of the singer from the 2nd wave ska band the Body Snatchers. Halfway through we get some solid rock posing, and there’s plenty of hair whipping from the guitarist and drummer. I’m digging on the solo, plenty of noodles on that flying v. I also did not expect the falsetto on the chorus to be the dude, but it’s rad he can hit those notes.

Friday Morning Metal – Blackslash – Heroes, Saints & Fools

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Oooh throwback metal from Germany. Heroes, Saints & Fools from Blackslash! I bet when they first started, Google really wanted to offer up “Did you mean Backslash?” Hell, even Youtube did it when I was trying to find the video. Encyclopaedia Metallum also wants to make sure you don’t get them confused with Backlash the heavy/power metal band from Bamberg, Bavaria, or Backslash from Freiburg, which is hard rock. Or also Back Slash which was a heavy rock band in 1991. Also don’t get them confused with Blackstreet, the R&B group known for No Diggity.

The song kicks off with a growly vocal intro, like an orc is trying to send you on the right path, before kicking into some dueling guitarmonies and driving drums. Clemens Haas’s vocals are interesting, not quite what you hear from other throwback bands, like a bit of a growl but not going falsetto or anything. He also kinda looks like Nick Wiger with the same haircut as Boo Boo from Bob’s Burgers. It’s fun to see the guitarist air guitar during the pre-solo breakdown, and then also during the soaring sweeps picky solo. Man that’s a good solo. All in all it’s a rollicking good time of a song.

The video itself is of the “rockin out at night in the forest” variety. That sounds oddly specific, but the woods seem to be a staple of heavy metal videos. I bet it’s because it’s spooky. Seems like there’s a new trend to use filters to give the video an aged look. It’s probably not a new trend, but I’ve noticed it a few times lately and it looks pretty solid. There isn’t a side story, just watching the band shred and have a good time. Hopefully they didn’t encounter the Teutonic-equivalent of the Blair Witch, that’d be a bummer.